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Quick content warning, towards the end there is some discussion of assault, I don't go into detail but once I start talking about Part 9 of JoJo, that's the time to peace out if you need to.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (henceforth referred to as simply JoJo) is a long running manga series created by Hirohiko Araki that began in 1987, and later received a full anime adaptation in 2012.

While it's been popular in Japan since its debut, it wasn't until the recent anime adaptation that it reached its current infamy across the world where it gained a reputation for many reasons, such as the unique ways characters fight, constant references to western music, and being super homoerotic.

It's quite a well known aspect of the series, some fans affectionately referring to it as 'that gay posing show', given that each major arc of the series (known as 'Parts') feature a new cast of characters, who are generally men in revealing outfits that frequently pose in a manner directly referencing those done by celebrities in photo shoots.

While it might just seem like a quirky little thing that Araki likes doing, it's easy to forget just how much this was pushing the envelope.

Lots of younger queer folk around my age forget just how bad queer representation was 20 years ago. You'd struggle to find anything at all beyond queer coded representation yet JoJo wasn't just out there being camp and homoerotic.

JoJo's had explicitly queer characters since 1997, and has nailed them from day one with characters like Squalo and Tiziano, and Sorbet and Gelato.

I've always held the belief that when it comes to representation, especially with queer folk, it's important to show characters just existing while being queer, no questioning it or acting like it's weird, just have be as much of a part of their character, motivation and relationships as anything else.

Unfortunately as is often the case, JoJo did suffer issues with censorship with its queer characters.

Part 6 features the only female protagonist in the series so far with Jolyne Cujoh. She was also going to be the first bisexual protagonist as the character Narciso Anasui, who acts as her love interest, was originally depicted in their first appearance with a much more fem appearance before being changed to a masc design allegedly due to interference from editors at the time, with Araki stating in a 2019 interview that he 'wanted to portray a character with an androgynous image that went beyond the standard definition of gender'.

This could arguably mean that Anasui is non-binary which would check out considering their 'Stand' (a series concept of what can be described as physical manifestations of a being's fighting spirit with unique abilities akin to that of a Family Guy cutaway).

Their Stand 'Diver Down' has the ability to go inside other things including people, and rearrange, remove or add, things inside, effectively giving them the ability to give anyone free gender affirming surgery.

While it's a shame that stopped Jolyne from being bi in Part 6, at least there was one bi character in Part 6 with DIO, a long standing character from the very start of the series, getting a boyfriend.

Some people do argue that Pucci and DIO are not a couple but I don't buy it. Besides Araki has confirmed back in 2007 that DIO is bisexual so even if they aren't dating, it's still more queer representation.

To my knowledge Part 7 and 8 are a bit sparse on queer representation though the protagonists for those are a twink cowboy and a twink in a sailor outfit and if that's not queer I don't know what is.

Joking aside, I haven't finished reading those parts yet and while I've heard bits about Hot Pants potentially being trans, it seems a bit disingenuous to talk about that stuff without having actually read it yet. I have, however, read all the chapters of Part 9 that have been released as of this writing (currently it's up to chapter 3).

Since we were robbed of bisexual Jolyne back in Part 6, all previous queer JoJo characters had unfortunately been antagonists, their queerness was never portrayed as something directly linked to their villainous nature like many of Disney's queer coded villains such as Scar; but it's a shame nonetheless.

Part 9 looks to be rectifying this as the first chapter introduced readers to the character of Dragona Joestar.

For the purposes of this article, I'll be using he/they pronouns for Dragona as that is what's used in all fan translations I've seen.

Immediately it's clear that Araki isn't playing around with the ambiguity this time by straight up saying Dragona has been getting top and bottom surgery, and by having them going against gender norms with how they dress (and looking great doing it too).

It's quite interesting really with Dragona doing all that as his Stand 'Smooth Operators' let's him reconstruct things and people so if he can use it on himself, he could give himself all the gender affirming surgery, so it's kinda interesting if he chooses not to, he might not want to stick to be a guy or girl but a secret third thing, which is especially interesting given that Part 9 takes place in Hawaii which historically had the concept of Mãhū which was just that, a secret third gender (if I had a nickel for every Gayly Helpful article I've written that mentions Hawaii's third gender, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird it's happened twice).

Sure it's entirely possible that Dragona might not be able to use their Stand on themselves but that's where Usagi Alohaoe comes in, his Stand 'The Matte Kudasai', can seemingly grant wishes, just not his own.

While they've only just started working together at this point in the story, if Dragona is unable to use their own stand to transition, they should be able to have Usagi use his Stand to grant their wish to transition instead.

It's still very early into Part 9 so we might get more information on Dragona's situation, we can say for sure it's more queer representation though and that's always cool.

Here's the bit where things get bad so I suggest stopping here if you need to.

While I said previously that I appreciate that Araki generally represents queer folk without any negativity. Part 9 is set in current day Hawaii and given the whole need for Gayly Helpful, now's not the best not to be queer in the US, especially for trans and non-binary folk. Be warned that if any of this has made you interested in checking JoJo out, Part 9 has a fairly detailed scene where Dragona gets assaulted, nothing is shown thankfully but it's still awful. But it's an unfortunate reality that many people suffer.

I've been a fan of JoJo since before I knew I was queer so my appreciation of the series has only grown as I got older and learned more about myself. Plus it's just really fun, people pull the most ridiculous stuff out their ass to win a fight, it's so dumb but it's clearly written with a lot of care too.